Immunotherapy is changing the way we fight cancer and giving new hope to patients by combating the disease through the patient’s own immune system. Goldman Sachs hosted a panel on the treatment’s development and potential, featuring Giovanni Caforio, CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb; Laurie Glimcher, dean of the Weill Cornell Medical College; and Jill O'Donnell-Tormey, CEO of the Cancer Research Institute.

O’Donnell-Tormey, on harnessing the power of the immune system: "Traditional therapies like chemotherapy or radiation directly attack the cancer. Immunotherapies…don't treat the cancer directly; they treat the patient… enabling the immune system to do what it should do."

Glimcher, on immunotherapy’s potential to offer personalized treatment: "We need to tailor therapy for each patient, because each patient’s tumor is unique. I think more and more we’re going to be turning to immunotherapy to do that. Chemotherapy is like a hammer hitting a fly – it destroys cancer cells but it also destroys normal cells, leading to undesirable consequences. Immunotherapy is guided. It’s much less toxic and it activates your own body’s system to kill off cancer cells."

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